taken from the Ministry of Education Hybrid Model 2022 pdf download

On our very first Teacher Only Day back at school, in one of our department meetings, I discussed one of the major changes to the teaching approaches needed to address the learning needs of students under the Red Traffic Light System.  That being, the ability to apply a hybrid approach to teaching and learning.  This was based on the experiences that my team underwent in the previous lockdowns for delivering Technology programs online to our contributing partner schools.  This, coupled with the work that we undertook as a department to ensure that the evidence-based learning captured in the end of year junior reports, accurately reflected and reported on the learning that students experienced in Auckland's extensive lockdown in 2021.

The following Ministry of Education Resource Guidance for School Leaders and Staff, refers to the 'flexibility for the learner/family/whānau', by having access to the learning resources eg. video recordings etc, at any time.  

However, the shift for my team into the Hybrid model, has also been influenced by the wider stakeholder needs (Primary Schools - teachers, students, whānau), and the teaching requirements that were needed to deliver our programs outside of our own secondary school environments.  There's nothing quite like a range of different stakeholder needs, numerous discussions negotiating the variables of our stakeholder partners, time restraints that transcend two different sectors (primary and secondary), and limited resources for at-home learning, to motivate the levels of change and adaptation by the Technology team to our teaching programs.  For this reason, the step into Hybrid learning is easily understood by the Technology department.  Not that this makes hybrid learning a piece of cake to execute (although cake would be nice), but more so that the level of understanding has enabled the team to continue making brave steps and brave choices in their teaching approach at the beginning of 2022.

And so, yet again, the Techies are embracing change.  That in itself is half of the battle won 🏆

With Year 7 and 8 Technology starting this week, we are offering a combination of the following to meet the different learning needs of our contributing primary school partners:

• Face to face learning for primary schools coming onsite
• Online learning for primary schools undertaking Technology at their own schools; including Steam Punk being delivered by our Hard Materials teacher, MBoT and Microbit Coding being delivered by our Robotics teachers, DVC online and Food Technology practical lessons being offered to primary schools on their school grounds via online teaching from our school

It's been a great start to Year 7 and 8 Technology so far this week.  We look forward to continuing for the rest of this week and beyond.